The present invention can be applied to systems or assemblies for packaging essentially any dosage form. Such systems may include a forming device such as a tablet press, an infeed structure, a laning structure, robotic devices for handling or carrying dosage forms, and a packaging machine. A series of conveyor belts and ramps transport the dosage forms through the packaging system. After the dosage forms are made, they proceed through the system and are controlled and organized for receipt by a packaging machine. A robotic handler may be used to transport dosage forms to the packaging machine. If the system packages dosage forms into blister packages, a robotic handler may be used to transport dosage forms to a sheet of packaging material, which will be sealed with a second sheet of material to form packages of the dosage forms.
The dosage forms travel through the packaging system rapidly and in large volumes. As many as 800 to 1,440 tablets per minute, or more, may be assembled into 240 packages of tablets per minute, or more. Hence, a displaced machine part, one of the dosage forms, or other debris anywhere in the system can cause dosage forms to break and improperly formed packages. Some systems must be shut down so that the jammed product or other debris may be cleared manually. This results in a loss of the product in large numbers before the system can be interrupted and the problem remedied.
The foregoing problems are exacerbated where the dosage forms are particularly susceptible to damage. This is true for packaging systems for relatively soft tablets. Such soft tablets include certain embodiments described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,178,878 and 5,223,264, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein. These tablets include, in addition to the active ingredients, an effervescent composition so that when the tablet is orally administered to a patient, it disintegrates. The tablets are very soft with a hardness typically below about 20 Newtons and in some cases below 10 Newtons. As a result, the packaging system must take into account the fragile nature of the product by providing means for avoiding jamming and backing up within the system and adequate arrangement of the product for packaging. Despite efforts in the art, still further improvements would be desirable.